Hydrogen Bomb

Roger Stover was born in Naperville, Illinois. He spent his first eighteen years there before going to Purdue for his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Stover later went on to receive a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering also from Purdue. He then taught physics at the Illinois Institute of […]

​George Francis McEwen was born on June 16, 1882 in Manchester, Iowa. He attended Iowa State College. In 1905, he moved to San Diego, California, and a few years later graduated from Stanford University. He began to work as a teaching assistant there, and in 1911, earned his Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics. He then […]

Richard Garwin is an American physicist. He was born in 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio. Garwin has had a long scientific career, focused on invention, conducting research, and advising policymakers and U.S. Presidents. After earning a degree in Physics from Case Western University, Garwin went on to earn his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. There, […]

Harris Mayer, born in 1921, is an American physicist. During World War II, Mayer joined the Manhattan Project at Columbia University. He first worked in a theoretical group that served as staff for physicist Harold Urey. In June of 1944, Mayer transferred to an opacity calculations group that was led by future Nobel laureate Maria […]

Donald Mueller (1907-2004) was an American physicist. Mueller was born in Cincinnati. He earned a B.S. from Cornell University and a graduate degree from Princeton University. During World War II, Mueller was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He also worked on the hydrogen bomb at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. […]

Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg (Виталий Лазаревич Гинзбург; 1916-2009) was a Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize winner. Ginzburg was born in Moscow. The son of Jewish parents, Ginzburg and his family faced persecution during his early years, which also saw the overthrow of the Tsar and the 1917 Revolution. His first job was working as an assistant […]

William Ogle (1918-1984) was an American physicist. Ogle was born in Los Angeles. He studied at the University of Nevada before going on to earn an M.S. and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois. In 1944, Ogle went to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. He stayed on after the […]

Sir Samuel Curran (1912-1998) was a British physicist. Curran was born in Ballymena, Ireland. In his early years, Curran studied mathematics and physics at Glasgow University. He also earned a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University. During World War II, Curran joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) along with his wife, physicist Joan Curran, to […]

David E. Lilienthal was the first Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Prior to becoming the Chairman of the AEC, he served as the leader of a consultancy group for the State Department that was responsible for developing the Acheson-Lilienthal Report. Chosen by Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of State Dean Acheson, Lilienthal led […]

Hugh “Brad” Bradner was a physicist at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. Bradner has become well-known for the home movies he recorded at Los Alamos. He has also been credited on numerous occasions for inventing the wetsuit.  After getting his Ph.D., Bradner was recruited by J. Robert Oppenheimer to join the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. At […]